The Prayer of Consecration

God the Father loves us so much, that He has given us the right to ask anything of Him. He is not demanding, or forceful with His children. He is truly our Father, and, when we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we truly become His children. His kindness toward us compels us to ask Him what He wants of us.

"Father, what would you desire of me? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?" These are the kinds of questions we ask when we pray the Prayer of Consecration.

When you love your father or your mother, you want to please them. You want them to be happy as they have made you happy. You are willing to take their advice over your own. The respect you have for their wisdom and guidance is always apparent. You trust they will never intentionally lead you wrong.

Our love for God, who is our heavenly Father, should be no less demonstrative. We should trust Him enough to follow His wisdom, guidance, and, leading.

The Prayer of Consecration, is a prayer which says, "Not my will, but thine be done". The Bible gives us the perfect example of this prayer as demonstrated by the Lord Jesus. While in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prays:

"Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."_{Luke 22:42}

"And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou [wilt]." _{Matthew 26:39}

It is reported that Jesus agonized in prayer. The battled within between His humanity and his divinity raged on. So much so, He sweat blood instead of water. No human flesh wants to die, and certainly not the tortured painful death that is death by crucifixion.

The human body resists death, it resists pain, and, it resists anything that looks like it might hurt us or be painful. Jesus' body was a human body, and it was no different, it didn't want to be tortured and it didn't want to die.

Jesus conclusion was in the statement, "...nevertheless not my will, but thine be done".

What Jesus did when He spoke these words was, consecrate, or set Himself, apart for the Father's use. In essence He was saying, "Whatever you want me to do in this situation, (even if I don't want to do it,) I will submit to your will, I will quiet my flesh and do your will."

Some don't believe it, but Jesus had a choice to say no to the cross. He could have listened to His humanity (and, no doubt the devil), and walked away from His preordained destiny. But, stronger than His human flesh, was His love for the Father, and, His love for mankind.

The dilemma; if He did not go to the cross, and, subsequently rise from the dead, mankind would be eternally separated from the Father.

Thankfully, love overwhelmed all of the arguments of the flesh, and, Jesus rose from prayer ready to fulfill His destiny, and, secure our redemption for all of eternity. Praise the Lord!

Of the nine types of prayer, the prayer of consecration is the prayer that is prayed when you know the will of God. It is the "I know what you want me to do, but, if you change your mind, that would be alright with me!", type of prayer.

If you notice, Jesus knew the will of the Father. Had Jesus not known the Father's will, He wouldn't have agonized over it. He wouldn't have asked for the cup to pass from Him. Jesus, didn't want to suffer and die if there were any other way to get the Father's will done. He said, If thou be willing let this pass. But, if there is no other way, than thy will be done.

Jesus expressed His emotion, His dread, His agony to the Father. We should do the same. When God gives us an instruction that we do not want to carry out, we should express ourselves to Him so that our hearts remain pure. We should never act like we like the thing that we do not like.

When we are honest, as Jesus was, God will help us with the hard part. Jesus was honest with the Father. Jesus stayed before the Father until He was empowered by the Father to do the will of the Father. Jesus was strengthened to carry out the task set before Him. (Aren't you glad about it? I sure am!)

God will do the same for us. When faced with a difficult task from the heart of the Father, just stay before Him. He will strengthen you. God has never intended us to fulfill His will under our own human power.

Thy will be done, says no matter what I feel, or think, I will sacrifice whatever I need in order to do your will. If it means my life, I will do it. (That's pretty heavy stuff...), but, that is what Jesus did.

If we do not know the will of God for our lives, we should lay before the Lord until we do know His will. He will not keep us in the dark. If we seek Him, He will reveal to us His desire for our lives. Once we know His will we can decide to consecrate ourselves to His will or to go our own way.

Like Jesus, we need to reconcile within ourselves if we are going to do the will of God, or, the will of our flesh. It is not easy, Jesus Himself sweat blood, and, agonized in prayer so He could overcome the desire of His flesh; which was to stay alive. Remember, He knew His destiny was to die for the sin of the world. And, His flesh, did not want to die.

The key to His success in overcoming His flesh was prayer. He laid before the Father until His will lined up with the will of the Father. He even told the disciples prayer could keep them from entering into temptation.

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak. _{Mark 26:41}

And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. _{Luke 22:40}

If we pray in the most difficult times, those times when we want to do wrong, those times when wrong seems justifiably right, God will be faithful and overshadow us with His power and presence to strengthen us so that we can do the right thing.

No matter how old you or young are, no matter what you know, you can set yourself apart for the service of the Lord. He will use you, and, you will be blessed.